Aincncan h'ls/icncs Society. 75 



( )nr laws in l^cnnsylvania are lood-fisli protective. We have 

 t\\!i of the lars^er streams rniining tlirovii^h tlie state, tlie Dela- 

 ware and Sns([nelianna. Twehe or fifteen years ago, about 

 fifteen ])erhai)s, the vahie of the shj'.d cauglit in the Delaware 

 Iviver was abotit S75 annually, that is about the entire valuation 

 of the shad that were sold: but bv having the laws arranged so 

 as to have a closed season, and b\ the system of hatclieries — we 

 have a tine shad hatchery in Bristol where we propagated about 

 ten millions of eggs this year — the income is now between ^700,- 



000 and $900,000, very nearl} a million dollars from shad alone 

 and $43,000 from salmon. 



The President : That is shad? 



Dr. fames: "S'es. shad alone. Xow that is simply to show 

 Iiow the laws can be made for one tish or for another or for all. 



1 think 1)\- the laws of Pennsylvania we do not now plant any 

 carp at all, but with brook trout and rainbow trout we fill the 

 trout streams ever}- year. About th.ree \ears ago the legislature 

 cut ofif our appropriation, but the year before we planted 105.000,- 

 000 of different kinds of fish, shad, bass and brook trout and all 

 the varieties of good fish in the waters of Pennsylvania, and it just 

 cost about $35,000. Last year they were going to cut the ap- 

 propriation down to about $15,000. I happened to be up at the 

 legislature at the last meeting and I plead with them to give us 

 at least $35,000, and I said the income of that $35,000 will bring 

 your state in nearly a million in the propagation of shad alone, 

 and it is not so nuich the valuation of the fish as the amount 

 of good food it gives our people. It is said here that the carp are 

 more valuable than the shad. Why? Because we have so aj-- 

 ranged as to the matter of hatching that there is such a great 

 quantity of shad thrown on the market that the value goes away 

 down, and the man who sells them does not want it down below^ 

 a certain price, l)ut the people do. We can feed thousands and 

 thousands more people upon shad ; it is very good food, but the 

 value is kept up by those who catch them, and there the poor and 

 rich come in contact as to the supj^ly of food. We know that 

 fish is on the menu of every hotel, and is one of the important 



